Say hello to your new area code, Southern Indiana: 930 | POLL

Attention Southern Indiana: State utility regulators have your number — and it's 930.

The supply of available phone numbers in the 812 area code is nearly exhausted, and in recent months the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has been weighing how to introduce a new area code.

On Wednesday, the IURC announced that the new area code will be 930, and it will be introduced using the overlay method. This means that, soon, customers in the existing 812 area who request new phone service or who add a line will receive a number with a 930 area code. Customers with existing numbers will keep their same number and 812 area code.

The other option regulators could have chosen was a geographic split, in which some parts of the calling area kept the 812 area code while other parts got the new area code.

Because this area will soon be served by two area codes, all callers will be required to use 10-digit dialing for all calls. But that won't happen immediately.

First comes a 13-month grace period. The first six months will be devoted to customer education and network preparation. Then comes six months of permissive dialing, meaning that customers can use either seven- or 10-digit dialing within the 812 area code. After that comes a month of mandatory 10-digit dialing for local calls.

After the grace period elapses, then the 930 area code will begin to be assigned to new numbers. Officials can't put an exact date on when 930 numbers will start showing up, said IURC spokeswoman Danielle McGrath.

Wireless carriers and phone companies are assigned large blocks of numbers which they distribute to new customers as needed, McGrath said, and only after those remaining 812 blocks run out will the entities start being assigned numbers with the new area code.

"You really don't know when that is going to happen," McGrath said.

A company that signs up more new customers, for instance, might run through its remaining 812 numbers sooner than one of its competitors.

In making its decision, the IURC held 10 field hearings around the state to gather public input.

At a hearing in Bloomington, a local public official pitched the idea of using 463 as the new area code. On a touch-tone keypad those numbers correspond with the letters IND.

McGrath said that idea proved unworkable in this case because some Evansville numbers use the 463 prefix — the first three digits of a local number. According to North American numbering conventions, phone numbers can't have an area code that matches a prefix used in that area code, McGrath said. In other words, phone numbers such as (463) 463-1212 aren't allowed.

But McGrath said Neustar, the entity that is responsible for area code assignments in North America, has assured the IURC that it will reserve the 463 code for future area code relief in some other part of Indiana.

When the area code system was introduced in 1947, Indiana was split into two area codes — 812 in Southern Indiana, and 317 everywhere else. The Hoosier State now contains six area codes, but until now the 812 area code has remained untouched. Its footprint includes the entire southern portion of the state including Evansville, Terre Haute, Bloomington and Jeffersonville.